The present disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing a damper assembly that constitutes a refrigerator and that opens and closes a water or ice dispensing hole to prevent the leakage of cool air.
Refrigerators are electric appliances for storing foods at low temperature in a storing space closed by a door. The storing space is cooled with cool air that exchanges heat with refrigerant circulating in refrigeration cycles, thereby optimally storing foods.
Along with the change of people's eating patterns and preferences, large and multifunctional refrigerators have been introduced, and various comfortable structures have been added to refrigerators. For example, a refrigerator may include a dispenser for dispensing ice made by an ice maker, without opening a door of the refrigerator.
Such a dispenser is installed on an exterior part of a refrigerator door, and dispenses ice made by an ice maker in a refrigerator, according to a user's operation. The dispenser includes a recess recessed inward from the front surface of the refrigerator door. A container for receiving ice is placed in the recess, and an ice dispensing button or lever is manipulated to dispense the ice.
Ice made by the ice maker is stored in an ice bank, and the ice is dispensed through a discharge duct communicating with the ice bank and the dispenser, when the ice dispensing button or lever is manipulated. A damper assembly is installed on an end of the discharge duct near the dispenser to selectively open the end when the ice dispensing button or lever is manipulated.
Since the damper assembly is connected to the ice bank through the discharge duct, the damper assembly is required to have sealing and insulating performances, thereby preventing ice from being molten in the ice bank and preventing cool air from leaking out of a freezing compartment.